The super rich have been hiding as much as $32 trillion in secret tax havens in order to evade taxes

James Henry, British economist and author of "The Price of Offshore Revisited", recently released years of research on the money held in tax havens beyond the reach of local tax authorities. Henry relied on investigating the data available in records of the Bank of International Settlements, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and national governments.

Mr Henry says that the super-rich move money around the globe through an "industrious bevy of professional enablers in private banking, legal, accounting and investment industries."  Mr. Henry refers to this business as "pirate banking", involving a network of lawyers, accountants, bankers et al who specialize in sheltering money from taxes by moving the money to secret tax havens around the globe.

Henry concludes that "The lost tax revenues implied by our estimates is huge. It is large enough to make a significant difference to the finances of many countries."

Welcome to the twenty-first century, where crime now transcends international boundaries.

For a transcript of the BBC interview of James Henry, please see The super rich have evaded taxes on as much as $32 trillion of assets hidden in secret tax havens